Time passes and by 1931 the bridge was old fashioned and unsafe, after all it was not created for motor vehicles! It was closed to traffic on 23rd October 1931, one hundred and thirty years after it first opened.

In 1998 the World Monuments Fund put this almost forgotten bridge on its Watch List and, in conjunction with the JNHT, the Spanish Town Iron Bridge Foundation was formed. People had lost interest in the relic and additional funds were slow in coming. Then Hurricane Ivan in 2004, with its mega-gallons of storm water, almost finished destroying this structure as sections of the two-century old foundation washed away. An all out effort was made and four years later restoration started in earnest.

Work has been underway since October of last year to restore this beautiful piece of our history. The foundation piers are being meticulously restored with hand cut stones and mortar mixed similarly to that used in Georgian times. There’s one difference though: the bridge, which had originally cost ?4000 to fabricate and install, is now costing J$12,000,000 to repair. It will be wonderful to see the finished project which the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and the Spanish Town Iron Bridge Foundation have worked so hard over the last twenty years to accomplish!

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